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(Aim Cjpti^^MliA^tnJ^ JJ^d^ (AijM^r 



AN APPEAL 



BY 



rii 



THE AUTHOR 



OF THE 



"BeslAbusedBookoftliePeriff^ 



I 




WASHTIsTGTON, 1). (1 : 
'' ^'ational Republican" PniNTiNa House. 



tt/^ 






AN APPEAL 



TliE ..A.XJTKOI^ 



BEST ABUSED BOOK OF THE PERIOD." 



'' Unless wariness be nsed, almost as good kill a nuin as kill a. good 
book." — Milton. , 

May it please the Judges of the Court in which Chief 
Justice Chase presided, when he reposed in me the supreme 
confidence of his old age ; and may it please the Judges of 
the other Courts, in which I must endeavor to maintain an 
honorable standing ; may it please my brethren of the Bar, 
whose good opinion I have ever faithfully endeavored to de- 
serve ; and may it please the public generally, in wliose eyes I 
cannot willingly allow myself to be degraded ; I have not for- 
feited, and I trust that defamation and derision have not yet 
been able to destroy, the reputation I enjoyed when Salmon 
Portland Chase reposed in me the trust just mentioned. 
Then, as is expressly stated in the " specially sanctioned " 
life of Chase that bears the name of Mr. Schuckers, Chase's 
" mental faculties were as clear and vigorous as at any time 
in his life" (p. 622). He was not generally a good judge of 



character; but, as I have said and shown in my biograpliy oJ' 
him, in some circumstances he formed very accurate conce[)- 
tions of character, and the circumstances of liis acquaintance 
with me absolutely compelled him to become fiimiliar with 
my cluiracter as well as with my standing. Infinitely more 
important than tlie private aspects of tlie trust which he 
reposed in me when he made me, in effect, his literary execu- 
tor, were the purely public aspects of that trust. If I have 
faithfully performed it, " in extremely trying circumstances," 
as stated in the ijftroduction to m}^ life of Chase, I have the 
right to publicly stigmatize as libels of the most inhuman 
kind the criticisms w4iich, condemning without measure the 
biography itself, describe the biographer as destitute alike of 
literary taste and of moral discrimination.' 

Literary taste may not be deemed essential to distinction 
at the Bar, even in the highest forum ; but in every forum, 
and in all the occupations and relations of the lawyer, nioi-al 
discrimination is imperatively called for. The inhuman plot 
to rob me of my reputation, and, if possible, to make me 
permanently infamous, assailed, in effect, my i-eputation as a 
lawyer as well as my reputation as a writer for the press. I 
am not now, I never was, and I do not intend to be, an 
author by profession. I am far more interested to preserve 
my legal reputation than I am to save my literary reputa- 
tion. But I have the right to care for both. Except when 
I almost suspended my attention to the practice of the law^ 
in order that I might give due attention to the execution of 
the trust reposed in me by Salmon Portland Chase, as has 
been mentioned, I have given to my literary labors no atten- 
tion which was called for by my duties toward clients or 
toward the courts. My habit has been to reduce to writing- 
results of my researches and reflection. Often, during many 
years, I was disabled by disease to the extent that I was kept 
for months at home. At those times and at others I in- 
dulged my taste for writing, generally without any fixed 
idea as to publication. Publication I have ever almost ab- 



Jiorrcd. ])ut I was connected with the press before I entered 
on tbe study of the law, and I have felt obliged, from time 
to time, to offer contributions to the press. My contribu- 
tions to the press were generally praised. No real critidsui 
ever ridiculed or censured any book of mine or any less extensive 
cma,nation from my pen. 

I sliall not praise myself. But I could jB.ll a book of some 
dimensions with favorable — ^sometimes highly laudatory — 
criticisms of my writings and my speeches in Ohio. Was 
thej-e once a plot to praise me without reason ? That there 
has been a conspiracy to rob me of a very valuable reputa- 
tion and, if possible, to make me permanently infamous, the 
public must have very clearl}^ perceived. But I do not 
l)elieve there ever was a plot to praise me. I reject, there- 
fore, and I denounce, the criticisms that deny to me moral dis- 
crimination as well as literarj^ taste. I earnestly appeal Irom 
the pretended condemnations of my life of Chase. They are 
all sheer libels or most careless imitations of sheer lil)els. 
]^ot a single criticism worthy of the name has failed to praise 
that book. 

A highly laudatory criticism of it used this language : 

'•^ludg■e Warden is a man of marked ability With rare and 

most interesting- conversational powers, he has written as he talks ; with 
a mind well stored with learning and knowledge, he has given ns a work 
that will stand the test of time." 

A criticism, evidently not a little inHuenced by the very 
criticisms it rejected — those which I denounce as libels — 
opened by characterizing the same volume as "the best 
abused book of the period," and closed as follows : 

"With no special interest in the matter one way or another, we recom- 
mend our readers to examine for themselves before accepting the judg- 
ment of the critics, who have evidently covenanted with each other that 
the book shall not stand. We take issue here, and believe it will live. 
Let the years decide." 

Amen ! and make me die a good old man 1 But I must try 
to live meantime. My legal reputation cannot wait for that 



decision of "the yeiirs." It liiis already stood "the test of 
time;" but I must now defend it vigorously. I have de- 
layed too long already, vainly lioping that the necessity of 
defending it might pass away. My legal reputation is my 
chief reliance for the means of supporting my family, pay- 
ing debts, and making fit provision for old age. 

My literary reputation also seems to me a thing well worth 
preserving. It may enable me to render not a little service 
to the public, if not to my private interests. 

To sue my libelers, as I intended when I wrote a card 
hereinafter set forth, turned out to be impracticable. Every 
body knows how certain kinds of men treat any man whom 
they lind assailed in the public press. My circumstances, 
when I contemplated bringing suits for libel, promised to 
enable me to do so with eifect; but my pecuniary condition 
became such as to force me to abandon the design of suing 
my deriders and defamers. Some of them are rich and influ- 
ential ; others have command of wealth and influence. To 
litigate with them, in my circumstances, would have ])een 
absurd. 

But I did not give up the hope of showing to the })ublic 
the enormous wrong my libelers had done to me, and, 
through me, to other persons near and dear to me, as well as 
to some purely public interests. 

A biographer of Wordsworth says : 

"There was a general combination to put him down ; but, on the otlicr 
hand, there was a powerful party ui his favor, consisting- of William 
Wordsworth." 

There was but one powerful party in my favor. It was 
not myself. It was He of whom the German proverb says 
that the old God still liveth{der alte Gott lebt nocJi). Wrongers 
of all orders wrong me now "without remorse or dread." 
But, by the old God of that German proverb, I will not sub- 
mit without a struggle to the wrongs done to me and my 
household, as well as to the public, by the libels here in 
question. 



This is the tenor of the card in which I announced my 
intention to sue my chief defamers : 

' ' To the Editor of the Enquirer : 

"To my old acquaintances in tlie Cincinnati Valley and the vicinity I 
owe, it seems to me, the explanation, that I purpose, at my earliest conve- 
nience, to afford to Murat Halstead legal opportunity to vindicate, if pos- 
sible, what he has said to readers of his paper about my biography of the 
late Chief Justice and about its author. Libel suits I never greatly liked, 
and to be plaintiff in a suit for libel could never be, to me, a pleasant pros- 
pect ; but to bring to justice the unblushing libeler just named appears to 
me due not more to any private interest than to some decidedly important 
public interests. On the other hand, I am almost broken down \^th the 
toil and excitement of composing and preparing for the press, in extremely 
trying circumstances, that biography; and I must try to rest and recreate 
a little before summoning my libeler before the face of public justice. In 
the meantime, I allow myself to state a few facts which ought to be more 
generally known. 

"No opposition to my biographic undertaking was, as far as I know, 
avowed by any relative or friend of Salmon Portland Chase while he re- 
mained in life. But he was hardly cold in death when very formidable 
ojiposition to that undertaking unmasked itself and showed a front of inso- 
lence unprecedented. That was a great trial to my heart ; but I endeavored 
to preserve due self-control. The great thing to be thought of was not 
pride, but duty. Though most ruthlessly insulted where the greatest kind- 
ness and respect might have been looked for, I abhorred the thought of an 
unnatural controversy with the daughters of the man whose confidence I had 
so solemnly engaged to vindicate in that biography. In letter after letter I 
made known my earnest wish to be at peace with those relatives of the late 
Chief Justice, and to make my work, as far as possible, acceptable to them. 
But all my wishes, all my liberal offers, were of no avail. I was to be dis- 
gracefully prevented, if possible, from performing my engagement to the 
hero of my work ; and, if that shoidd prove impossible, the work itself was 
to be discredited and disgraced in advance. The New York Herald opened 
with a paragraph announcing that there was a rumor that my work would 
not appear. What paragraphs in that paper and in others have been used 
in the same unworthy service I need not set forth at present. After a time 
the libeler of the Commercial found what seemed to him, no doubt, a very 
pretty pretext for a libelous assault on my devoted work and on its author. 
Happy Ilal stead ! How he gloated over that fine opporturiity to gratify a 
settled venom ! 

" But that pretext was removed. I let the public know that I was not 
in any sense responsible for the letter Halstead had pretended to consider 
as inspired by me. I do not credit him with much uiiderstnnding. For 



some time T have been satisiied that I osce overrated liis hitollect at the 
expense of his morals. Now his heart appears to me far harder than his 
head. Yet 1 think I do him no injustice when I say that he always nndei- 
stood me qnite too well to believe for one instant that I was either mor- 
ally or legally responsible for Mr. Buell's statements and conjectures. But, 
however that may be, the venom of this libeler did not entirely blind him 
to the consequen(;es of his vile assault on me, under tlie pretext of the 
Buell letter. He had raised a storm which he could not allay, and his love 
of money and his malice had a lively conflict with each other. He saw 
what he had done. It seems to me there never was before a man in wliom 
malice and the love of money were so equally combined as they appear to 
be in Murat llalstead. But the New York Herald once more tried its libel 
power. It committed a sheer literary forgery in order to get oW a pre- 
tendecr criticism of my work, and the Commercial thereupon liastened to 
emit a new libel, worse, if possible, than that just published in tlie Herald. 
Now, if I deserve such tieatment, I desire to know that that is all that I 
have merited by public service and by private conduct. But the quarrel is 
not mine alone. It is the quarrel of biography and history. Had the 
conspiracy which resorted to those libels and to other most unworthy means, 
accomplished its nefarious design, biography and history alike would have 
been cheated out of most important matter. 

''I regret, therefore, that I do not feel well enough to go at once into 
the contemplated litigation with my libelers. I trust, after a little rest 
and recreation, I shall feel equal to that new endeavor to perform substan- 
tial public service. 

"R. B. Wakdrn." 

On the 18th of October, 1874, tlie Sunday Herald and 
National Intelligencer hiid before its readers a communication 
from Mr. Clifford Warden. That communication stated and 
explained as follows : 

"December 7, 1872, Judge Warden, who is my father's brother, gave 
me a full account of a conversation he had had that day at dinner with 
Chief Justice Chase, whom, he said, he had found in good mental health. 
At the same time Judge Warden told me that he had engaged to write a 
life of the CUiief Justice. On January 12, 1878, the 'birthday letter," in 
which the then intended method, scope, and spirit of the contemplated 
biographic and historic account were foreshadowed, was read to me by the 
writer of it. When Judge Warden received the first supply of material 
from the (^hief Justice I was acquainted with the fact. That was, 1 thiidi, 
in February, 1873. The largest supply seems to liave been made on the 
20th of tlie next month, I remember to have heard of it at the time. 

"On the 28th of March, 1873, Jiidge Warden read to me a copy of a 
letter, in the original of which he had ex})lained to ^Frs. Senator 8prague 



his relations to her father, and offered to submit to her the birthday letter 
just referred to. 

"A few days after the deatk of Chief Justice (^lase, I had, at Judge 
Warden's request, an interview with Senator Sunnier on the subject of the 
Judge's biographic enterprise. Tiic Senator related to me that, in an in- 
terview lie had with Chase on the 2d of that montli, the (Uiief Justice had 
explained that Judge Warden was his biographer, and had expressed a 
liigh opinion of the latter' s fitness for the work he had undertaken. 1 
liave examined Judge Warden's account of this matter, on pages 802 and 
808 of his life of Chase, and I find that account, as far as it relates to my 
interview with Mr. Sumner, wholly accurate. Mr. Sumner fully agreed 
witli Judge Warden as to the mental state of the Chief Justice. 

"On the 14th day of May, 1873, Judge Warden read to me a copy of 
his letter to Mrs. Senator Sprague, containing an f)ffer to consult the 'near- 
est and dearest survivors ' of the late Chief Justice as often as they would 
allow. To this offer was added the words : 'Or some one acceptable to 
them; for example. Dr. Elder or Colonel Piatt." The same letter con- 
tained the words : 

" 'At all times, however, I regard myself as under obligation to reserve 
the final judgment as to the propriety of any sentence, phrase, paragraph, 
or passage to my own considered judgment, taste, and discretion, con- 
scientiously exercised, if I may so express myself. At the same time I 
always felt obliged, and [T] still feel (Obliged, to conform as nearly as pos- 
sible to the views of yourself and Mrs. Hoyt as to all that relates to the 
domestic life and relations of the late Chief Justice since his second mai- 
riage.' 

''Mrs. Sprague is the only surviving issue of the second marriage, while 
Mrs. Hoyt is the only surviving issue of the third. Thei-e is no survivoi' 
of the first. 

"The Buell letter, praising Judge Warden and ridiculing tlie surviving 
daughters of Chief Justice Chase, grew out of my introduction of Mr. Buell 
to Judge Warden. 

"Certainly I had no desire and no willingness to inspire any assaidt on 
any person at that time, and I feel quite certahi that the like was true oi 
Judge Warden himself. The design of that introduction was simply to 
enable Mr. Buell to give as he desired some account of the l)iograi)hic 
work on which the Judge was then engaged, particularly of the i>arts 
relating to martial men and measures. I have no reason to believe, and T 
have maiiy reasons for not believing, that Judge Waiden ' inspired ' the 
Uuell letter. He explained at once that he had not inspired it, and that lie 
considered it damaging to him ; and I had not the slightest doubt, and 
have now no doubt, that that explanati(m was entirely candid." 

I*ossibly, I went too far in trying to make certain parts of 
my biography of Cliase not nnacceptablc to Ins survivino- 



relatives. Surviving relatives must learn that the purely 
public aspects of a trust such as that reposed in me by the 
late Chief Justice Chase, when he put into ray hands his 
diaries and correspondence, are, as I have intimated, infin- 
itely more important than the private aspects. 

Congress subscribed for a thousand copies of the work in 
which Charles Francis Adams glorifies the Adams family, 
and censures, far from charitably, several illustrious Ameri- 
cans, with whom the noblest Adams of them all had diifi- 
culties. Chase's diaries and letters were not less important 
than the Adams papers, and, notwithstanding all that has 
been said about the malice in my life of Chase, no syllable of 
real malice can be found therein. Yet, while my execution 
of the trust reposed in me by Chase was persecuted as already 
indicated, I did not ask Congress to subscribe for copies of 
the book in which I was endeavorino; to render a screat ser- 
vice to the country and the times ; and I never asked any 
one to aid my execution of the trust reposed in me by Chase 
as I have shown. I ask no aid from Congress now. But I 
■present to members of the Senate and to members of the 
House of Representatives this denunciation of the criticisms 
which pretended to condemn the book here vindicated ; and 
I call on the Senators and Eepresentatives, without reference 
to party lines, to aid me in defending my biography of Cliase 
against those criticisms. 

That the matter drawn by it from Chase's diaries and let- 
ters is to take the book, in honor, down to distant generations, 
I have not the slightest doubt. But every American should 
come to my assistance in the effort I am making to enable 
that so brutally belibeled book to serve the country now. It 
can do most important service to the country. This, indeed, 
is indicated by the very "criticism" in which Havper's 
Monthly dared to say to all the world and his brother: 

"Judge Warden possesses neither literary taste nor moral 

discrimination." 

That sheer libel Harper f^ Monthly would not sufibr me to 



answer, though my proiFered answer was most courteous. I 
mean to teach that haughty periodical that it is not omnipo- 
tent. But its pretended criticism, having shamelessly aluised 
me, used these quite suggestive words : 

"Studying these materials, we arise from their revelations with our pre- 
vious respect for Chief Justice Chase deepened into reverence. There are 
few public men who could with safety to their reputations admit us so 
unreservedly to their confidential correspondence and their secret thoughts." 

Indeed 1 And who, pray, could have known that 'better 
than did I, after I had made a preliminary study of the ma- 
terials in question ? 

Chase has l)een most coarsely ridiculed because he kept 
diaries and furnished them to his biographer. Had he not 
done so, he would not have had the posthumous fame he now 
enjoys, if dead m.en can enjoij the thing called fame. But for 
the revelations of those diaries, the fame of Chase would have 
been far from, enviable. So I considered when I determined 
to compose my book as far as possible of matter drawn from 
Chase's diaries and letters. 

It was that " old, reliable " religions organ, the Star in the 
West, with which I editorially battled nearly four-and-twenty 
years ago, that called my life of Chase "the best abused book 
of the period," and concluded that that book will live, not- 
withstanding the covenant of the critics that it shall not 
stand. I have already explained that the criticism so pre- 
dicting was evidently not a little influenced by the very criti- 
cisms ft rejected and condemned. But it used this language : 

' Yet for all this tierce criticism and harmless invective of the author, 
arising mainly from political considerations, and the freedom with which 
he introduces personal matters into the volume, his 'Account of the Pri- 
vate Life and Public Services ' of ex-Governor C^iase is a decidedly valu- 
able contribution to the history of American politics ; and it gives, on the 
whole, such a view of the man and his times as is necessary to form an 
intelligent and unbiased estimate of his character and services. Unique 
the volume certainly is, and perhaps without a parallel in recent biography ; 
and with many defects of taste and blemishes of style, it may properly be 
classed among what the late Mr. Greeley styled 'mighty interesting read- 



10 

ing.' It is personal, gossipy, and garrulous, abounding in little details 
which would have been omitted by a more prudent biographer, but which 
are quite interesting to the reader. The early life of the hero is told in a 
manner which leaves little fto be desired, and many interesting gleanings 
are made from the diaries which Mr. Chase kept from an erirly age ; wliile 
the more mature years of the man, and that part of his life in which he 
has been associated with the moral and political activities of the nation, 
are revealed with a fullness of detail which f\irnishes many contributions 
to the inner liistory of the times in which he lived. All along in the work 
Judge Warden has made copious use of the personal memoranda and pri- 
vate correspondence of Mr. ('base, and, while not always in the best ol' 
taste, yet hi such a way as to help the reader to a better understanding of 
the relations of the late Cliief Justice to recent politics."' 

And the same article contained these M^ords : 

"No doubt some of the personages who are mentioned in the book 
greatly dislike this feature, and esteem it a public; misfortune that the 
diaries of Mr. Chase should have fallen into Warden's hands, and that 
lie should have been designated by Mr. Chase himself as his biographer. 
But there is no help for this now, and we think, on the whole, that the 
'publication may be salutary and profitable. Mr. Chase was, perhaps, after 
Jjincoln, the foremost man of his time, and his relations as a politician 
covered many interests and brought him into personal relations with nearly 
every promuient politician hi the country ; and it was natural for his biog- 
rapher to treat of these relations so far as they throw light upon the c-har- 
acter of his hero, undeteired by social or political considerations. 

" It is not always, however, that Mr. Chase shines as seen through these 
side lights of history. The biography is essentially a hitman book, and re- 
veals Chase as he really was, without the adornments of fancy or imagina- 
tion. 'Paint me as I am,' was Cromwell's advice to his painter, and we 
think that Judge Warden has performed a like service for Salmon P. Chase. 
The finished picture certainly reveals a man great hi many essentials of 
character, pure in life and strong in mtegrity, yet withal human — essen- 
tially and truly human. We doubt, however, if the; life of another Aiher- 
ican politician could be written with such microscopic investigation of 
piivacy and freedom of expression, with the possible exception of Cliaiies 
Sumner's, and reveal so little to brmg the blush to the cheek or hidigna- 
tion to the spirit. With all his faults, and they were many — prominent 
among which was, that he would sacrifice a friend at any time to secure 
the favor of an enemy — Chase amounted to a great man, and made his 
mark broad and deep On the later years of American history." 

Among the letters I have received, assuring me that my 
biography of Chase portrays the latter as he was, is one con- 
taining the following sentences : 



' 11 

"Yon make Mr. C. what lie was ; yes, and say of him quite as favorably 
as he would have said of himself. We read him in luivate as hi public life, 
tlie man that he was. 

"From 1855 tp 18()4 I believe that I had that knowledge of Mr. ('. that 
enables me to speak of him understandhigly . " 

There is no doubt at Cincinnati that the writer of that 
letter was, for many years, quite intimate with Chase. 

The stuff about " defects of taste'^ and " blemishes of style" 
was clearly a weak concession to the mob of criticasters who 
were howling against my book. A like remark is applicable 
to the stuff' about "little details whicli would have been 
omitted by a more prudent biogapher, but which are quite 
interesting to the reader." But I wish to say a further word 
about the " little' details " in the book I here endeavor to 
defend. 

That book is not, in general, either " personal" or " gossipy," 
and never is it " garrulous ;" nor does it " abound " in " little 
details" which a more prudent biographer would luiye 
omitted. It would have been better had it so abounded. 
Here and there there was material for the ''little details," 
which it is admitted are so " interesting to the reader," but at 
times the book \8 forced to be as heavy as a statute-book. 

D. Thew Wright, Esq., who knew Chase well— at one time 
was his neighbor in the country, on the River Road, near 
Cincinnati — communicated to the Capital a letter, in which 
he facetiously defended my biography of Chase with good 
effect. Having intimated that no one could })egin to read it 
without reading it quite through, he added : 

"And when such perusal were ended the reader would rise from his task, 
hnpressed with the belief that upon the lengthening record which preserves 
to posterity the memory of virtue, of patriotism and of intellectual gran- 
deur m America's most distinguisl/ed sons, stands, emblazoned in letters 
of living light, the name of Salmon Portland Chase.'' 

A slip, cut from I know not what paper, reads as follows : 

" The biography of Chief Justice Chase necessarily embraces, or is con- 
nected with, much of the history of the country during nearly half a cen- 



12 

tury. Judge Warden, with great good judgment, has permitted the sub- 
ject of the memoir to tell his own story to a great extent. It is Mr. C'hase 
that speaks to us m his letters and more elaborate correspondence. 

' ' These give us an insight into his private as well as j)ublic life ; and not 
only this, but a resume of the current events covered by the volume. 
Judge Warden deserves the thanks, not only of the numerous friends of 
Mr. Chase, but of the whole country, for the manner in which he has per- 
formed his part of the work. lie has given us the great statesman and 
jurist as he was, a transcript of his life — essentially an autobiography."' 

Said the Oincinnati Times and Chronicle : 

"A biography chiefly in the words of the late Chief .lustice himself, 
interwoven from materials supplied by his own hand to the biogra- 
pher, with the fullest liberty to use them according to his own discretion. 
The matter thus furnished is largely made up of private diaries and such 
letter-book copies as he had retained of the correspondence of a lifetime. 
There are also the autobiographic letters to Mr. Trowbridge, and other 
productions hitherto known but partially or not at all to the general public. 
To say that these multiform materials abound in contents that camiot fail 
to be of deep and enchaining interest to every intelligent reader, is but to 
state what might naturally be expected, and what is the simple truth. 

"Chief Justice Chase was fully responsible, not only for his own words, 
which constitute the great bulk of the book, but for their present publica- 
tion. On this point the evidence is too clear and conclusive to need furtlier 
remark." 

The Christian Standard^ like the Star in the West^ was not 
a little influenced by the very criticisms it rejected and con- 
demned. But it acquitted me of the charges importing that 
I had wronged Chase's daughters, and it ascribed to me a 
good intent in the use I made of his diaries and letters ; yet 
it said : 

"The biographer has aimed to represent his hero, as he will call him, as 
he finds him in his correspondence, and allows him to make his own his- 
tory, giving the work as much the nature of an autobiography as possible. 

"But there is one thing he has not taken into account, namely, that the 
autobiograplier was young when the subject was young, and that autobiog- 
rapher and subject thus grew up together. As it seems to us, he should 
have looked over the whole as Mr. Chase would have done in his after 
years, if it was really his intention to let him speak for himself, and have 
used that correspondence as Mr. Chase would have done. We should thus 
have a view of his life from a fixed point, and that one of advantage. As 
it is, we look at it much as at a landscape from a fiying car. It is hence. 



13 

ill our way of thinking, far from a satisfactory biography; for we have but 
the memoranda of his eventful life, without the unifying narrative." 

Chase was not an auto.biographer when he was making en- 
tries in his diaries; and he was six-and-iifty years of age 
when he wrote his autobiographic letters for the guidanW. of 
Mr. Trowbridge. My design was just to show, as Chase him- 
self, in those letters, meant to show, the phases through which 
his action and reflection passed from youth to early man- 
hood, and from early manhood forward. And it is entirely 
a mistake to say that there is any lack of unifying narrative 
in the book I here defend. 

The Christian Standard closed its criticism with these 
words : 

"That something of the ordinary cast of biography would be more in- 
teresting we are not prepared to say. We read it with unflagging inter- 
est. That it is truthful and candid we do not question. At all events, it 
is a new departure in biography, and has paid too severe a penalty on that 
account. It is a valuable book." 

Is it a new departure in biography ? I had in view no 
such departure. I had carefully endeavored to discern the 
biographic laws. My reading of biography in English, French 
and German had been extensive long, long before I thought of 
writing a biography of Chase. When I engaged to write a 
life of Chase I made new studies of biography and of the 
criticisms of biography. Among the books which greatly 
influenced my views of the minuteness proper in biography, 
are Irving's " Life of Goldsmith" and Boswell's " Life of 
Johnson," as well as Lewes's biography of Goethe and the au- 
tobiographies of Franklin, Gibbon, Hume, and others. I 
may have no literary taste. Of that I may be totally incom- 
petent to judge. But I am at least entitled to declare that 
nothing could have been more careful than my efforts to arrive 
at right ideas as to my perplexing duty in relation to Chief 
Justice Chase's diaries and letters. 

Murat Halstead said in his Commercial organ : 

"'Speaking of Mr. Chase the Missouri Democrat says: 



14 

" ' Aa kSccrctary of the Treasury he "intrigued '' for the Presidency ])y 
making- every appointment under him subserve his interests, and the move- 
ment against Lincohi's nomination was conducted with his knowledge and 
for his benefit. ' 

' ' TJlie Chicago Inter- Ocean says : 

" 'He was the opponent of Mr. Lhicohi in 1800 at Chicago. He was de- 
feated, and Mr. Lincohi made liim one ol" his constitutional advisei's; but 
this evidence of genercms contidence did not prevent him from intriguing 
to defeat the renomhiation of the man witli whom lie had held the most 
intimate official and personal relations during four years. This course of 
doubtful honor on the part of Mr. Cliase did not deter Mr. Lincoln from 
elevating liim to the Supreme Bench, and the higratitude, not to say bad 
faith, of Mr. C^hase is the more glaring in contradistinction to tlie magna- 
nimity of Mr. Lincoln. ' 

"There is a great deal of this dirt dying from the pens of writers who 
are either wholly ignorant or whose i)rejudices and malice are hi excess of 
their information . " 

Halstead's conduct toward Chase in life was not sucli as to 
entitle him to champion the memory of Chase. This I have 
shown in the biograpliy here vindicated, especially in the 
chapter on Prophetic Journalism. Ilalstead is undoubtedly 
tlie champion dirt-Hinger of the Mississippi Valley. It is 
hardly necessary to say that he is often " wholly ignorant " 
of that whereof he writes so freely, and that his malice and 
his prejudices are generally in excess of his information. 
After all, however, he must sometimes have good motives, 
and, if only by sheer accident, he must sometimes hit upon 
the head the nail at which he strikes. But in the present 
instance he is either insincere or stupid. Jle subjoins : 

"T\\{i Democrat -MiiX Inter- Ocean mistake the position of Mr. Chase hi 
the spring of 18(30. He had no favors to ask of Abraham Lincoln. He 
was not dependent for his importance upon the offices he held, or of preca- 
i-ious position. The foolish story that he had 'bargained' his way into 
the Senate of the United States in the hrst place had been wiped out by 
his election and re-election as Governor of Ohio, and he had been elected 
Senator of the United States, with a full term to serve from March 4, 1860, 
a period extending two years l)eyond Mr. Lincoln's administration. The 
Senate was familiar to Mr. Chase. He knew his strength there. He had 
in the Senate Chamber won his national reputation. There was every 
reason to believe he could stay there as long as he pleased. His personal 



15 

preference was to stay in tli<> Senate. I3nt Mr. Lincoln wanted liim in the 
Cabinet. There was an immense work before the A(bninistration, and 
Mr. Lhicobrs sagacity was not at fault when he sought the help of Mr. 
Chase. When Chase gave up the Senate, where he might have beeu the 
leader of iiis party, and in deference to the wishes of Mr. Lincoln, for the 
safety of the country, took up the drudgery of the Treasury Dej)artmcnt, 
he placed Mr. Lincoln and the country under obligations. Tliey, not he, 
thenceforth owed the debt of gratitude. The theory that Mr. Chase be- 
came the personal property of Mr. Lincoln by accepting the office of Secre- 
tary of the Treasury, is impertinent, if not idiotic. It may have pleased 
Mr. Seward to make known to Mr. Lincoln that he had abandoned all 
thoughts of the Presidency, but Mr. Chase was not that kind of man. He 
did not ' intrigue V in that way. Why should it be assumed that Mr. Lin- 
coln was entitled to a re-election? At least, how can it be decently 
asserted that there was an impropriety in a member of his Cabinet consent- 
ing to be a candidate ? If there was an obligation upon any one to stand 
aside, why was it not upon Mr. Lincoln rather than upon Mr. Chase ? 
Lincoln had filled the office, and C'liase had sacriticed much to serve him, 
. and had performed the most gigantic personal part in the whole of the 
war — why would it not have been tlie right thing for Lincoln to have 
stepped aside and made way for Chase ?' ' 

This reasoning is very coarse. 'No real friend of Oliase's 
memory will ever undertake to justify his conduct toward 
Lincoln. 

In the hook I here defend, the conduct of its hero toward 
Jjincoln is reluctantly, hut quite decidedly, condemned. But 
nowhere does that book disparage Chase. Nowhere does it 
willingly condemn his conduct. It is just and charitable 
toward him throughout. It concludes with the judgment 
that his part in life was, taken as a whole, quite clearly 
marked by beauty, dignity, and value. 

1 had come to love him ere he passed away. Tliis is quite 
clearly shown in my biography of him. The simple forgery 
of criticism in which the New York Herald, preyiewmg the 
book it pretended to rtview, charged the book here vindi- 
cated with too willingly confessing judgment against Cli^ase, 
had no warrant for that accusation. And the Herald had 
already spoken in this fashion : 

*'In the last forty years we have had two men in the office of Chief 
Justice — Mr. Taney and Mr. Chase. As we attribute a good deal of the 



16 

strength And prevalence of C.esarisni in our politics to the precepts and 
example of President Jackson, we find the spirit manifest in the appoint- 
ment of Mr. Taney. Readers remember Jackson's stormy controversies with 
the Bank ; how he waged war upon it in defiance of law and equity ; how 
he made and unmade Secretaries, to suit his anger or his pleasure. In the 
course of this war it became necessary to remove the deposits of the Gov- 
ernment from the Bank. This could only be done by a violation of law. 
The Secretary of the Treasury — we believe it was Mr. Ingham, of Penn- 
sylvania — declined to violate the law. Jackson dismissed Mr. Ingham, 
and found in Mr. Taney an officer who cared more for the Executive will 
than for the enactments of Congress. Taney's subservience gave Jackson 
the victory. For doing this Taney was honored by the grateful President 
with the highest office in his gift. He was made Chief Justice of the Su- 
preme Court ; but the stain upon the ermine which came with its bestowal 
was never removed. Chief Justice Taney lived many years, and gained 
the honors which in many ways it is impossible should not pertain to the 
lofty station ; but he was never so much of a Judge that he was not a par- 
tizan. He served the slave power. He proclaimed the Dred-Scott de- 
cision, and endeavored to paralyze Mr. Lincoln in his early war measures 
by a mandamus. Slavery died in spite of his decree, and the war tri- 
umphed over his opposition, as it did over the opposition of Jefl:erson Davis 
and Robert E. Lee. Mr. Taney in time passed into history, to be remem- 
bered — we can scarcely say honored — with Story, Marshall, and Jay. 

"Salmon P. Chase succeeded Mr. Taney. Mr. Chase has only just 
passed away, and the flowers we threw upon his bier have scarcely lost their 
bloom. We have already done Mr. Chase full justice in regard to those 
instances in his judicial career in which he manifested in his decisions from 
the Bench his indifference to his former political convictions and to his 
former political acts. But when submitting the high judiciary of the United 
States to a searching investigation, for the purpose of discovering to what 
extent it has become impaired by the corrosion of Cajsarism, we are com- 
pelled to lay bare the motives which placed Mr. Chase in the Chief Justice- 
ship, and to inquire, with the cold impartiality of a judicial investigation, 
whether his every act on the Bench was above reproach. Mr. C-hase was 
a skilled leader, a courageous thhiker, with genius for authority ; in many 
respects a great man. But he was neither a great lawyer, in the broadest 
acceptance of the term, nor an ideal Chief Justice. His ermine came as it 
came to Taney — not without stain. Among the mistakes of Mr. Lincoln's 
character was his respect for expediency. Mr. Lmcoln was never so in- 
trepid a statesman as to forget the lessons he learned as a politician in the 
Western States. He was governed by expediency, which was sometimes 
illuminated by principle and conscientiousness. He appointed not always 
the best, but the most available men. To paraphrase his homely wit, he 
wanted horses that could pull the team — the team being the Republican 
party. He selected his first Cabinet from the men who had been his com- 



17 

petitors in the (■hicago ("onveiition. and tVoiii other men wlio bad aided 
liis nomination. Mr. Welles was perhaps the only one appointed on Gen- 
eral Grant's theory— of personal knowledge and esteem. This rule gov- 
erned his selection of Mr. Chase for the CUiief .Justiceship. Mr. Chase was 
not a devoted lawyer. He had not studied his profession. He had been 
in political life. Around him and hi his interest were the stormiest poli- 
ticians of that stormy time' He was the rival of Mr. Lhicoln and scarcely 
his friend. He had used the vast patronage of the Treasury to be nomi- 
nated in Mr. Lincoln's place. He had been so heedless and active in its 
use that many scandals urose, and there were revenue transactions ui cot- 
ton, in trade permits, in raishig the tax on whiskey, hi the freedmen's ser- 
vice, and in the printing departments of the currency that would surpass 
the Credit Mobilier. Yet because he had hi his interest a large fragment 
of the Republican party, as an act of magnanimity and expediency Mr. 
Lincoln gave him the exalted offic-e. There may have been irony in tlie 
gift, knowing the restlessness and ambition of Mr. Chase. If, however, 
he could have forgotten that he was a politician, he would have become in 
time an ideal Chief Justice. But he never forgot it. In his dreams he had 
seen the Presidency— nay, he had felt the tide impelling him to that daz- 
zling seat. He never ceased to dream of it. His office was an exile, an 
imprisonment. Like Pius VII, wlien Napoleon kept him hi captivity at 
Fontahiebleau, he had all but his freedom. So he pined, and planned, and 
hoped, and fretted, and died, in disappointment and sorrow, as great men 
die who feel they were born for more fertile and active destinies. 

"It never occurred to Mr. Chase that he could have no higher station. 
It might be so to other men, but he craved the free air, and bustle, and op- 
portunity of the Presidential office. The country, consequently, saw an 
uneasy Chief Justice. Wherever a political convention opened its doors 
there stood Salmon P. Chase, in the robes of Marshall and Jay, seeking 
the nomination to the Presidency. He stood at the door of the Republican 
(convention in 18(58, asking to be nominated as an extreme Radical. When 
it was found that Grant was in possession he went over the way to the 
Democratic Convention, and was almost nominated as a Conservative. 
Nor did he appear to feel that in either case he was unworthy of his office. 
Nor did his friends in the country think so. Is it not only yesterday that 
we buried him and heaped the flowers on his tomb, and honored him — as 
he deserved to be lumored — as a great and mighty man? Far be it from 
us to take a. leaf from the heaiied garlands that rest on his grave. But is 
it not a mournful thing — a sad evidence of the Csesarism that pervades the 
country — that it should not be thought unworthy hi a Chief Justi(;e of the 
United States to get down among the Trumbulls and Gratz Browns, the 
Seymours and Frank Blairs, his name tumbled from bar-room to bar-room, 
as a beggar for the nomination to the Presidency? Many friends of Grant, 
who honored him as a soldier, have feared he was unequal to his time ; 
that the age has deadened and weakened his admhiistration. We see now 

2 



18 

how a great statesman — and the Supreme Chief Justiee was alike power- 
less — how he bent liefo]-e the hour, and, with all his genius and strength, 
could not resist its temptations. Only yesterday and the funeral poets and 
orators chanted the praises of this courageous Judge as one who had the 
manhood to set his face against the impeachment of Johnson and defeat 
that enterprise. Sorrowful, sorrowful, indeed, it is that we shoukl honor 
a Judge for partisan courage; that we should forget that the duty of a 
Judge is to look neither to the right nor the left in any trial. Mr. Chase 
liad no Imshiess whatever wdth the guilt or innocence of the President, 
only with justice and the law — like the obelisk, which stands aloft and 
pierces the heavens, and is beautifvd because it is upright and tow^ering, 
even like God's own justice and truth." 

I had rend this article when 1 wrote the card that ap- 
peared as follows in the Sta7\ at Washington: 

'-Editor of Sf.ttr : 

"SiTi: When Salmon Portland Chase became a <lead immortal, every- 
l)ody (if we make a few exceptions) turned and toned his pen or his lips to 
eulogize the great departed. But it was not long till some peisons began 
to take another tone respecting his illustrious lelation to his country and 
his times. The North American liemetr, for January, 1874, may, however, 
be regarded as the printed issue which has gone the farthest in disparage- 
ment of the late ('hief Justice, morally and intellectually. 

•'That the late (Jhief Justice was a taultless character he himself could 
not have fancied. Nor did any one who kj\ew 1dm well imagine that he 
was cither a saint or a deputy Omniscient. That biography of him wiiich 
shall conceal his faults and foibles will be vaiidy false and foolishly lui faith- 
ful. But, on the other hand, whoever intimates that Secretary Chase was 
the creature represented in the January immber of the North American' 
Review, disgraces, not the famous dead, but some one who still lives. The 
pen that can give out an intimation such as that, consents to its own degra- 
dation. 

"In effect, that article represents the man whom Lincoln first made 
Secretary of the Treasury, and then appointed Chief Justice ol" the Union — 
such, according to Chief Justice Chase himself, was a proper designation 
of his office — in effect, I say, that article represents the man so honored 
and so trusted as financially an ignoramus and judicially a knave. 

" A diary of the man so cruelly censured aftei- his departure from the 
field of battle, known as life, contains, under date of March ;2, IHol, this 
entry : 

" 'I was a, tardy riser this morning. The sun anticipated me by more 
than an hour. When up, I read the Scriptures, finished Akenside's poem, 
perused an article in the Ed. Rec. on the Effects of Machinery and Accu- 
mulation, and about fifty pages of the Wealth of Nations, and about a 
dozen pages of Say.' 



19 

••The .laiiuary number of the North American Rericir. for 1832. con- 
tained an article by Mr. C'hase on the Effects of Machinery. That ai-ticle 
has been represented by eulogists as indicating practical and thorough 
study of the science which, it seems to me, may well be christened Public 
EcononiicS. It is not my piirpose to examhie whether Mr. Chase ui that 
eminently characteristic contribution to the North American Reiriew ibre- 
sliadowed his tinancial course and character. Nor shall 1 offer here a 
judgment as to ('base's depth or want of depth as a practical and theoreti- 
cal economist, domestic or political. My present purpose is, first, to invite 
attention to the fact that, as early as his three-and-twentieth year, Mr. 
Chase had begun to study, scientifically, the cognitions which relate to 
public wealth, and second, to enter, if I can, a most respectful caveat to 
censors. 

'*It is understood that there are in preparation at least two elal)orate 
accounts of the public services and private life of Salmon Portland Chase. 
I am able to say that one of them has nearly reached completion, and that, 
while it is cihiefly made up of matter drawn from the diaries, letters, and 
other writings of its hero, it is very free from conscious partiality. Until 
that work, or some equally full and equally methodic, as well as equally 
impartial sfiiowing, shall have been made of Salmon Portland Chase's inner 
life, all censures of his outer life must be in danger of damaging their 
authors more than they can damage that true worthy's memory. With- 
out very carefully examining some such showing, no one can be safe in try- 
ing to interpret the enigma in the public life of the man so coarsely cen- 
sured in the North American Review. 

"Let censors, then, take care. They have no occasion to be so censo- 
rious while so imperfectly informed. They can afford to • wait for the 
facts. ' at least as well as covdd Senator Pugh on a well-known occasion. 

"R. B. Warden. 
''Washington-, Janiutry r<iu, i.s'/^." 

The disposition indicated in that connnunication is appa- 
rent in the work that it foreshadows. The alleged perfidious 
disparagement of Chase by me is a pure creation of imagi- 
native criticasters. 

Among the books of which the examples greatly influ- 
enced my use of Chases diaries and letters, is Lockhart's 
^' Life of 8cott." But I see now quite clearly that I drew too 
largely from the letters and the diaries of Chase. As already 
intimated, I had not the unforced calm required for such a 
work. I did the best I could while persecuted so inhumanly ; 
but r relied not a little on the explanation made as follows 
in the introduction: 



20 

" • A great trust I" 8aid 3lr. Suniucr, very gravely, wlioii he fully learned 
the nature of the matter furnished for this work by Salmon Portland 
Chase. It was, indeed, a great trust which the hero of this work, in full 
possession of his faculties, deliberately, without having been pressed, and 
after much reflection, reposed in my discretion. In extremely trying cii- 
cum stances, after his decease, 1 clung to the performance <:)f that trust, 
and, in exti'emely trying circumstances, I have faithfully discharged it, ac- 
cording to the best of my ability and understanding. The result is here 
presented to the public. 

Brother Tahnage, or some other christian criticaster, in a 
simulacrum of a criticism in the curiously misnamed paper, 
facetiously called The Christian at Work, affected to regard 
this very sad and very simple opening as a grand preliminary 
flourish of unhounded vanity on the part of the biographer. 
Assuredly, no less pretending introduction than the intro- 
duction here in question ever took the form of printed matter. 

The introduction here in question thus continues: 

'• Salmon Portland Chase did ncjt elect to repose in any member of his 
family the contidence in question. He did not even wish to empower any 
member of his family to supervise or in any maimer influence my bio- 
graphic work. His fondness for his family was very proud, but it was not 
blind. He nuist have felt that, having been thrice married, he could not 
have properly allowed to either of his daughters, or to both, the right to 
overrule or modify the confldence by him reposed in a i)rei"erred biogra- 
pher. And very well did he understand that 1 would not. have suflered 
either him or them, or any other person, to supervise, or even greatly in- 
fluence, the composition of the work which had been more than ctnnmenced 
when, without even a suggestion from me as to the kind of matter proper 
to be furnished by him, he began to select letters, diaries, and other docu- 
ments for my use."" 

Is this the language of self-inflati(jn? is it marked l)y 
vanity 'i Tlie trust reposed by Chase in me had purely 
public aspects, which, as 1 have said, were infinitely more im- 
portant than its private aspects. Public trusts had been 
reposed in me long before the trust in question came to test my 
conscientiousness, my patience, and my industry. Had the 
proposed libel suits been actually brought, surviving relatives 
of public characters would have learned a very necessary 
lesson. 



21 

Tt is not often that surviving relatives of men like Chase 
appreciate the interest of the country in such trusts as that 
just mentioned. It is plain that the surviving relatives of 
(Jhase had no due appreciation of that interest. The book 
they " specially sanctioned '' reminds me of these words of 
a slashing criticism : 

" This book seems to have been manufactured m pursuance of a contract, 
by which the lepresentatives of Warren Hastings, on the one part, bound 
themselves to furnish papers, and Mr. (Tleig, on the other part, boiuid him- 
self to furnish praise."* 

The representatives of Salmon Portland Chase seem to 
have hound themselves to furnish ''sanction," while the bio- 
graphic Schuckers seems to liave bound himself to furnish 
senseless eulogy. 

Macaulay added to the words just quoted an expression of 
the opinion that tlie covenant on both sides had been most 
faithfully kept. Similarly, one may say that the covenant 
l)etween the biographic Schuckers and the representatives of 
(.■liase a})pears to have been performed as well as was to be 
expected. 

I have shown the late Chief Justice Chase just as he was. 
The story I have told of his career is true, in every par- 
ticular; the character I have ascribed to him was his true 
character. 

I feel entitled to insist that in so telling Chase's story, and 
in so portraying his character ; that in the use I made of his 
diaries and letters ; that in all tliat my life of him contains ; 
I have effected an important service to my native land. 

But what, so far, is my reward ? I am the best abused 
author of the period! Said the Stai- in the West in the 
already cited criticism : 

'• Although Warden's Life of Chase has not been published more than a 
lew weeks, it is already one of the best knowai publications of the day. 
In fact it was a pretty w^ell known ])c>ok before it was published at all; for 
the newspapers of tlie day made copious extracts from advance sheets, and 
gave it an amount of gratuitous advertising which is rarely accorded to a 



i>2 

work even of this public character. Previous to publication it came to be 
well understood that the volume was not issued by authority of Mr. Chase's 
family, and that they had decided objections to Judge Warden as a biog- 
rapher, and from this controveisy arose a newspaper discussion which had 
the effect to make the book and its author very widely known, even before 
it was given to the public. And since its publication it has run the gaunt- 
let of criticism as severely as any book of the age. In fact we may say it 
is the best abused })Ook of the period." 

Surely, surely, surely, here is more important mattei' than 
the question, whether any man is or is not a most egregious 
egotist. Here is a matter of alarming interest to every good 
man, to every good woman, in the countr^^ 

The mere counterfeits of criticism that pretended to con- 
demn the hook in question were not laughing at the author's 
real or imaginary vanity. To say that since the publication of 
that volume " it has run the gauntlet of criticism as severely 
as any book of the age," is not to use strong language. 
Never was a book so foully and so brutally derided and de- 
famed as the wholly unpretending, faithful, truthful contri- 
bution to American Biography here vindicated. 

A] fieri was his own historian. Yet he said that speaking 
and, much more, writing of one's self, is, without one single 
doubt, born of much love of one's self. ('' II parlare, e molto 
pill lo scrivere de se stesso, nasce senza alcun dubbio, dal 
molto amor de stesso.") 

Owen, since insane, chose for the motto of his autobio- 
graphic work, entitled Threading my ^ay^ the words : 

''Que faites-vous la, seul et reveur?'* 
— ".Te m'entretiens avec inoi meme." 
— "Ah ! prenez garde, le j^eril est extreme 
De causer avec un tiatteur. '" 

Which, albeit I am not a poet, I take leave to English in 
this fashion: 

•'What dost thou there, alone, in reverie ?" 

" I entertain myself in waking dream." 
' ' Ah ! then beware ! thy peril is extreme — 

"Thou talkst with one that" s sure to Hatter tlice."" 



23 ^ 

In short, tlie world of readers is familiar with the various 
devices of autobiographers attempting to forestall criticism 
by confessing egotism. X am sure that not all the wealth of 
Ormus and of Ind would not suffice to buy my consent to be 
my own biographer ; but I resort to no devices here to excuse 
the effort I am making to show that I am not the creature, 
painted in pretended condemnations of the book here vindi- 
cated. I propose to call some witnesses on that subject. 
And, first of all, I summon — Murat Halstead. 

Libelers ought to have long memories. 

Little more than a month before Murat Ilalstead opened 
up against me, as I have already indicated, he addressed 
to me a letter, which contains these words : 

'^I have assigned to you reasons for not publishing matter, out of a 
sense of respect, partly due [to] my reccvgnition of your abilities and 
partly due to the knowledge of your misfortunes."" 

A citizen of Kentucky, defending my biography of Chase, 
has used this language : 

-'Now, to the impartial and fair-minded t)bserver it must seem strange 
for men clainung to have the highest esteem and admiration for IVIr. Chase 
to be found uttering opinions that would show, if correct, that he was 
nothing less than a fool. In the • birthday letter ' which .Judge Wanlen 
wrote to Mr. Chase, January 18, 1878, which appears cm page 7r)() of 
' Warden's Life of Chase," Mr. Chase is informed fully of Warden's inten- 
tion as to the book he was intending to write, and hi that letter is sub- 
mitted a plan upon which the book was to be written, (hi the ITth of 
January, 1878, in answer to the letter just named. Mr. Chase wrote as^ 
lollows to Judge Warden : 

" -Washington, January 17, ISII^. 
"'My Dear Judge: I was surprised and gratitied by your letter on 
the occasion of my birthday. Should you pursue the purpose you indi- 
cate, I shall be happy to afford you all the aid— not much— in my power. 

'• 'You are right in repeating that success does not argue merit. It has 
pleased Divine Providence to make [me] instrumental in the promotion of 
two great reforms, both political— one social and the other tinancial. But 
I claim no merit in either. 

•' 'The difficulty I find m writuig must be my excuse lor bre\ity. But 
1 shall always be glad to see you. 

" 'Meanwhile I am, gratefully and faithfully, yours, 

" 'B. P. Chase. 
'"Hon. R. B. Warden.' 



24 

"Oil the 31.st of -luuaiiiy. IHTi). Mv. Cliase wrote ;ts follows to Jiulj^e 
Warden : 

" ' Washington, January .'U, 1S7:i, 
'"001 E Street. 

" ' Deak Sir: At the moment you called I was actually engaged in 
my duties as Presiding Judge. The clerk was not much mistaken, though 
it is seldom, on conference days, that I have even live minutes' leisure. 

" ' I wish you would call on me freely. Whether you care to be presentiMl 
tt) the ladies or not may be a subject of after consideration. 

"' Yours, cordially, S. P. CnAsr:. 

" • To the Honorable Robert B. Warden.' 

"On the 7th of February, 1878, he wrote as follows to Judge Warden : 

" ' Dear Judge : Can you call this evening, before 1)'^ If you can con- 
veniently, you will oblige me by doing so. 

" 'Yours, truly, S. P. C. 

" ' Hon. R. R. Warden." 

"On the 4th of May, 1878, Mr Chase, having then gcme to New York, 
wrote as follows, in pencil, to Judge Warden, and tliese lines are in all 
probability the last he ever wrote to anybody : 

" ' New York, May 4, 1S7S. 

"'My Dear Judge: Please excuse my penciling. It is more conve- 
nient than ink. \ 

" ' T had rather a cold and bleak ride yesterday, relieved by tlie comforts 
of a compartment which I should call a box, but was rewarded at the end 
by seeing my children in good health, and some of my grandchildren. 

" ' There is nothing changed in my personal condition. 

" 'How do you feel, now that I am gone — relieved from my sick ways 
and utterances ? or, upon the whole, are you sorry to miss me '? 

y 'Remember me to Donn and Mrs. Piatt when you see them. I hope 
Mrs. Piatt has recovered from the shock and discomforts to which she was 
subjected by the fire. Tell Donn that I was disai^pointed by his non- 
fulfillment of his promise to Mrs. Sprague to call on me to say good-bye. 

"'Do you remember Dr. Brown-Sequard's note? Was it left among 
the letters of which you took charge? Please enclose it by return mail. 

" 'I still propose going to Boston on Wednesday or Tluu-sday, and par- 
ticularly want the note. 

"' Faithfully, your friend, S. P. Cuask. 

'"Hon. R. B. Warden.' 

"The man tt> whom these letters were written had been an intimate 
acquaintance of Mr. Chase for years and year«, and if ever one man liad 



25 

an opportunity to know another fully, surely Mr. Chase f>ught to have 
known Robert B, VV^arden. They had hotli been prominent in Ohio. 
Sometimes they were together and sometimes opposed in politics ; but, no 
matter whether co-operating- with each other or fighting on opposite sides, 
there never was a time during the acquaintance of these two men when 
they did not respect and admire each other. There never was a time wh^n 
either of them attributed to tlie other anything but honor and ability-. 
But suppose, for the sake of the arg\iment, that ^Er. Chase durhig the 
last few months of his life was not possessed of the power of disci-imina- 
tion necessary to select a biographer ; suppose he might have l)een deceived 
by some newcomer : what explanation is there to the higli regard and atlec- 
ti(m he entertained for Judge Warden, far back in the past? In 1857, Mr. 
Chase invited Judge Warden, as one of several distinguished speakers, to 
address the citizens of Ohio in his behalf. But, for further proof of his 
esteem, let us see what Mr. Slmckers' book itself gives us in tliis belialf. 
On page 279 we find the following letter or extract : 

"'November fi, 18(51. 

" 'Dear Judge : Let me thank you for your admirable article. It 
teaches a necessary lesson. We must imitate the grand patience of (lod ; 
yet, in doing so, let us not shrmk from the hnitation of His justice and 
ctonstant energy also.' 

"On page 305 of Mr. Shuckers' l)()ok we find the following letter fiom 
IVFr. Chase to Judge Warden : 

"•OcTOiiER 23, 1863. 

" 'My Dear Judge : Yours of the 20th is just received, and touches 
me deeply. The loss of your noble son moves my profoundest sympaties, 
and it is fit that just such a monument as your book will make for him 
should be constructed by your hand. Is it the will of God that the precious 
blood poured out in this terrible struggle shall nourish the vine which He 
planted in America to fresher, nobler growth? I reverently hope so. The 
effects of the fiery trial to your mind, and many (rther spiiits of like reatdi 
and culture, confirm the hope. It is a real gratification to be assured that 
any words of mine have contributed to your present convictions. 

" • I was never an abolitionist of that school which taught that there 
never could be a human duty superior to that of the instant and uncondi- 
tional abolition of slavery. He who sees the tower in the quarry and the oak 
in the acorn requires no impossible task from His creatures. But for more 
than half my life I have been an abolitionist of that other school, which 
believed slaveholding wrong, and that all responsible for the wa-ong 
should do what was possible for them, in their respective spheres, tor its 
redress. I shall be very glad to see your book. 

•• -Sincerely, your friend. S. 1*. Chase. 

'"Hon. K. B. Warden, (Jinciniudi^ Ohio.' 



26 

"What do these letters most resemble? Would one suppose for a mo- 
ment they were written by a simpleton to a ' fanatic ' or ' blackguard ' oi- 
' egotist ' or ' absurd person '?' Is it not plain, on the contrary, that the.>' 
are the emanations of a master mind, wi-itten for the i)erusal of one per- 
fectly comi)eteiit to understand them, and whom Mr. Chase regarded as 
worthy oJ" his most distinguished consideiation, at home and elsewhere?" 

In the same article appear the words: 

'' Enough has been shown above to clearly indicate how shallow have 
been the pretences urged against Warden, and how miserable and con- 
temptible it has been for the press, especially that portion of the Ohio 
press which took sides against him, to turn their backs u]jon one wh(> 
claims not perfection for himself, but who, nevei-theless, is an able and an 
honorable man, whose own unaided efforts, when he was yet a yoiuig man, 
secured for him a seat upon the Supreme Bench of Ohio. His decisions 
while a Judge of that Court are also ' accessible ' to Mr. Schuckers or any 
one else who desires to see whether he was fit to till the same seat that 
had been tilled by Nathaniel C. Read, John A. Corwhi, Allen (1. Thurman, 
Williani B. C\ildwell, and Bufus P. Ranney.*' 

Colonel Donii Piatt said to the readers of the Capital : 

"The criticisms in certain j(nirna,ls upon Judge Warden's life of Chief 
Justice (/base, if not from the same pen, are animated l^y the same feel- 
ing, and are so tierce, malignant, and personal, that one is rennnded of the 
days of Jeffrey, when literary merit was decided on political difterences, 
and the unfortunate offender was savagely denied not only merit, but per- 
sonal character. In the press of other business, more important to us, we 
have not had time to read the book with a view to a judgment of its merits 
and faults ; but our knowledge of the author, extending through life, 
almost, together with a recognition of his ability, refinement, and rare cul- 
tivation, force us to the conclusion that these brutal attacks originate in 
other motives than a wish to perform a critic's duty or to defend the illus- 
trious dead." 

The already cited coinnuinication of Mr. Clifford Warden 
closed as follows : 

''It is proper, I conceive, to add that no one acquainted witli Jiulge 
Warden can recognize in him the person described, under his name, by 
Harper's Monthly, as possesshig 'neither moral discviniination nor literary 
taste ;' or the ' Western frontier, prairie Ishmaelite ' described by the New 
York World ; or the person described by the New York Tribune as lack- 
ing 'culture, decency, and self-control.' More than twenty-two yeais ago 
^the Westtrit Latv Joariud said of Judge Warden: -To great powers of 



27 

13hysical endurance he nnites habits of the most i)atient mvestigation, 
quickness of perception, considerable literary attainments, and a remark- 
able felicity in his mode of statement. ' More than fourteen years ago the 
JVorth American Beoieic, in a, book notice, used "this language: 'Judge 
Warden manifests throughout the volume the attributes of a clear thinker, 
an independent reasoner, and a vigorous writer.' In a notice of the same 
book the Independent said : • We have examined with much interest a 
work which has been upon cnir table for some tune i)ast, but upon which 

we were unwilling to pronounce a hasty judgment We are free 

to commend the book for the originality of its conception and jjlan, and 
for the ability with which it is executed.' And the Xew York Freeman x 
Jimrnal, reviewing the same volume, said : ' Most books are reproduc- 
tions of books that have gone* before Judge Warden, late oi' 

the Supreme (Jourt of Ohio, and one of the most beautiful and classical 
legal minds of the country, has produced a new book.* The letter of 
Thomas Ewmg, thanking Judge Warden, in the name of the profession, 
for the work in question, was written (it explained) after a very careful 
reading of the book it praised. That letter appeared in the (Uncinnati 
Commercial, some time in ISOil. 

''Owning the copyright of that book, its author has allowed it to g(> 
out of print and to seem a failure. But, if judged acc<3r<ling to the gen- 
eral voice of the reviewers, it was clearly a success. 

The Ewlng letter, in relation to iwy first book — which is 
usually cited as Warden's Forensic Viev: — concluded as follows : 

"It embodies much learning, much just an<l exact thought, and in 
behalf oi" the profession 1 thank you for it."" 

The New Englander's criticism of the same book used this 
hinguage : 

''The present volume might properly be entitled a lawyer's view of 
man, especially of those attributes of his nature which have to do with 
law and the administration of justice. This design leads the author over 
a wide range of topics, ordinarily treated of in physiology, psychology, 
ethics, and medical jurisprudence. The contributions of the author, upon 
each and all of these topics, exhibit much reading with vigorous and inde- 
pendent thinking. His remarks, even on points which are especially tech- 
nical to any of the subjects named, are fraught with interest. They are 
especially valuable and timely upon all those subjects which are at all re- 
lated to criminal law. In order to determine all the (luestions here involved, 
the author has gone into careful investigations ui physiolology, so as to 
establish, on tenable grounds, the relation of the morbid conditions of the 
bodily organism to the moral responsibility of those guiltv of felonious 



28 

acts. We cannot accept the antlior's theory of the will as a jnst or fnll 
statement of its relations to the tlionghts and affections ; but we entirely 
coincide with the cautions and w^ell-considered objections which he urges 
against the tendency to believe in moral insanity, which is fostered by so 
many in the medical profession. On this subject even the physiological 
views of this able thinker might be i)rotitably considered by thf)se who are 
deemed so exclusively experts in their own judgment as to give law to 
judges and jurors.'" 

Can an "able thinker" be incapable of "moral discrimi- 
nation ?■' 

It was the Gincinnati Enqidrers criticism of the book here 
vindicated tliat described me as " a man of marked ability,'" 
and predicted that the book it criticized " will stand the 
test of time.'" 

I am quite certain that I did not use that book to glorify 
myself. I had not to learn that egotism m a book of that 
description would be wholly out of place. Moreover, T liad 
been specially warned against egotism. 

Wilkie ( /ollins, markedly inferior to poor John Forster, got 
off a cheap witticism against Forster's life of Dickens, which 
he said would turn out to be Reminiscences of Forster^ with 
Anecdotes of Dickens. Halstead, whose originality appears to 
be confined to his malevolence, borrowed that poor witticism, 
and altered it into a prediction that my life of (yhase would 
turn out to be Reminiscences of Warden^ with Anecdotes of 
Chase. 

I try to heed all warnings, not despising even warnings 
coming from such a man as Murat Tialstead. 

' ' May we that tloat 
Over life's sea, 
Welcome each warning note. 
Stern though it be." 

The warning against egotism, which was given me by 
Halstead, as already intimated, led me to resolve to avoid, 
with conscientious care, two opposite extremes — true egotism 
and false modesty. 

1 don't deny tliat 1 am generally egotistical. I don't 



v 
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29 

admit that 1 am generally egotistical. 1 neitlier admit nor 
deny that I am generally egotistical. That matter is too 
slight to he considered, now and here.. I do, however, quite 
explicitly deny that my biography of Chase is marked by 
real egotism, and I do admit that it is equally unmarked by 
Egophobia. 

By Egophobia I mean the curious malady, that sickens, 
and if the patient lias not been a drunkard, pales, when a 
neighbor of the patient talks about himself. The sufferer is 
very apt to be a lirst-class egotist himself; but he cannot 
a bear the slightest show of egotism in another person. 

But I must concede that one of the gravest accusations 
broutrht ao;ainst the book I am defending is too true. Had 
1 brought the contemplated libel suits, my book itself would 
have been evidence to show that " persistently," and " after 
the fashion of the romancers,'* I called Salmon Portland 
Chase "our hero." 

This is very sad ; but it is not to be denied. The infatu- 
ated book again and again, and then again — in short, " not to 
put too fine a point upon it," the book " persistently'' — calls 
Chase " our hero." And the crime here confessed is clearly 
marked by malice aforethought ; for a foot-note in the very 
first chapter makes the explanation : 

•' Quite lidicnlous iippeared to nie the ridiculing of the words U)ur liero,' 
as used in a former work of mine. They ai'e convenient words t\)r use in 
such a w^ork as this, and I have used tliem freely, simply to avoid too fre- 
quent use of other words." (Page 18.) 

The "former work" referred to wj^s a campaign book 
about " the Little Giant," and the critic who raised the ob- 
jection to its use of the words " our hero " was none other 
tlian — Murat Halstead ! 

I do not pretend to be ignorant of the enormous damage 
done tome, in my profession and thereout, by the persevering- 
malice of this man. As editor-in-chief of a paper, widely 
circulated where I practiced my profession, he had the power, 
during many years, of misleading many persons in relation 



30 

to my standing at the Bar. He freely used this power. He 
has also lost no opportunity of damaging my literary stand- 
ing. I denounce him, yet despise him quite too heartily to 
hate him. He is certainly the meanest and hasest enemy 
that ever worked against my reputation. But he has com- 
pelled me to immortalize his sljame. tn tliepillory in which 
he tried to place me, he forced me to iix him forever. 

iVraong tlie very clearest duties of the State toward the 
subject-citizen is to protect him in his reputation against the 
abuses of the press. Mr. Starkie well remarks in the Pre- 
liminary Discourse in his famous book on Slander, tliat "the 
right of every man to the character and reputation which 
his conduct deserves, stands on the saine footing with his 
right to the enjoyment of his life, liberty, health, property, 
and all the comforts and advantages which appertain to a 
state of civil society, inasmuch as security to character and 
reputation are indispensably essential to the enjoyment of 
every other right and privilege incident to such a state.'' 
(Page xxii.) [N'or will it do to say that a criticism cannot be 
called a libel. Criticism is essentia U}^ judicial. True, I have 
known learned judges to decide in haste and to repent at 
leisure ; nay, I have known learned judges to decide in haste 
and not repent at all, although the terms of their decisions 
liad been strongly marked with passion or with sheer frivol- 
ity ; but forensic judgment, generally speaking, is quite free 
from all the elements of malice ; and the forum of the critic 
equally requires the purest judgment ; nay, nmch more. 
When Milton says, " Unless wariness be used, almost as good 
kill a man as kill a good book," he only utters part of his 
conception of the guilt involved in that which 1 have ven- 
tured to call hiblicide. The context of the wcn-ds just quoted 
very clearly shows that Milton, though he was not even 
thinking of the literary censorshi]) involved in criticism.^ 
fully telt the guilt involved in the worse than nmrderous 
crime of him who, of his malice aforethought, undertakes to 
ruin a good book and to desti-oy tlic author's reputation. 



31 

The crime of libei ought, like that of murder, to be di- 
vided into degrees. The crime of libel in the first degree 
should be punished just as .murder in the first degree is pun- 
ished, ^o attack on the true freedom of the press is called 
for ; but the press ought not to be allowed to murder reputa- 
tion with impunity. 

One of the best speeches of Meagher is that in which he 
almost rings the changes on the Avords which he so eloquently 
rejects: ''Abhor the sword and stigmatize tlie sword." It is 
not well to abhor the press ; it is not well to stigmatize the 
press ; but it is very well to ablior and to stigmatize the 
manner in which so many presses are conducted. 

Millions of my countrymen have been instructed to abhor 
and stigmatize my name. And this has been because I have 
performed with fearlessness, with care, and with discrimina- 
tion, a trust of great concern to the whole people. I have 
not in any sense abused that trust. It seemed to me a very 
high and holy trust, and I endeavored to perform it for the 
benefit of all concerned. 

In youth I learned^ and I have never ceased to know and 
love, " the art preservative of arts." Unto this day, that art 
has often yielded me substantial service or most grateful 
recreation. T regard the press as I regard a mighty stream, 
that sometimes bursts its bounds and rushes furiously, far 
beyond its banks and above its shores. Tliat mighty and 
majestic river, while it keeps within its banks, goes rapidl}^ 
but not too swiftly down to the wide spread of waters, that 
connects with commerce and with non-commercial intercoui'se 
the civilizations of two hemispheres. In this, its normal 
course, it is a messenger of peace and of prosperity ; a blessing 
to the lands it waters, and an object full of beauty as of 
grandeur. Does it cease to be a blessing when it exalts itself 
above its banks, and rushes, full of fury and of devastation, 
over the afirighted fields ? ^ot so. It never ceases to be a great 
blessing ; but in those times of rage it works appalling dam- 
age, and all good men take arms against its fury. So it 



'/ 



32 

is with the uses and abuses of the press. I love and rever- 
ence tlie uses ; the abuses I abhor ; and^ by the ever-liviiig 
God, if I must battle while I live against the follies and the 
passions of conductors of the press, I will not bow before 
those passions or pretend to deem those follies wisdom. 

Tabart vs. Tipper^ (1 Camp., 351,) and Sir John Garr., Knight., 
vs. Hood and another^ {ib., 365,) are cases in which the privilege 
of criticism was alleged. In the first-named case, Lord Ellen- 
borough said: 

•' Liberty of <'riticism must be alb^wed. or we should neither have purity 
of taste nor' of morals. Fair discussit)n is essentially neeessary to the 
truth of history ami the advancement of science. That publication, there- 
fore. I shall never consider as a libel which has for its object, not to injure 
the reputation of any individual, but to correct misrepresentations of fact, 
to refute sophistical reasoning, to expose a, vicious taste in literature, or to 
censure what is hostile to moi-ility.*' 

Less happy was the language of the same learned Judge 
in Sir John Carr's case. But in that case he well said : 

'• The critic does a great servi(;e to the i)ublit' who writes down ;iiiy vapid 
or useless pul)li('ation. lie checks the dissemination of bad taste, and pre- 
vents people from wasting both their time and money upon trash. I speak 
of fair and candid criticism ; and this every one has a right to publish, 
although the author may suffer a loss from it. UncAi a loss the law does 
not consider as an injury, because it is a loss which the party ought to sus- 
tain. It is, in short, the loss of fame and profits to which he was never 
entitled." 

These two cases yield the pro[>er doctrine as to the privi- 
lege of real criticism. Simple counterfeits of criticisms have no 
privilege whatever. Could I have begun and vigorously 
prosecuted the suits for libel which I contemplated when I 
wrote the card published, as we liave seen, in the Cincinnati 
Enquirer., reckless critics would have learned some useful 
lessons. 

The b(X)k which Secretary Chase considered a fitting 
monument to'' a brave, intelligent, and faithful soldier," bore 
the title, Ernest and the Flag he Followed. Printed speci- 
mens of it received high praise; a, part of it 1 even caused 



38 

to be stereotyped ; yet I could never finish it to my own 
satisfaction. ^Notwithstanding all that has been said about 
my ludicrous self-admiration, I have ever found myself de- 
cidedly severe as a self-critic. Millions of my fellow-citizens, 
however, have been told that I am certainly the vainest man 
that ever lived. 

At fifty-two years of age, I feel that I must not expect 
to " live down " defamations and derisions such as those 
which I have lately had to suffer. I must fight them 
dow^n, or live dishonored during the remainder of my days. 
I battle here for interests which are more precious in my 
eyes than any form or any sum of riches. I will not allow 
my reputation to be totally destroyed by rich and influ- 
ential libelers and their confederates. From the pretended 
condemnations of the book here vindicated I appeal, with 
confidence, to the whole country. 

R. B. WARDEK 

Washington, February 19, 1876. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




